The Recycling Reset

It's Way Past Time to Match our Broken Recycling System to Real World Realities.

A Functional Recycling System Demands These 5 Essentials A Functional Recycling System Demands These 5 Essentials

A Functional Recycling System Demands These 5 Essentials

1: Viable End Markets

2: Clean Material Streams
3: Truth in Labeling

4: Access and Education

5: Designing With the End in Mind

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The Recycling Reset, Step 1: Begin with End Markets in Mind The Recycling Reset, Step 1: Begin with End Markets in Mind

The Recycling Reset, Step 1: Begin with End Markets in Mind

The absence of viable end markets for the materials we collect renders the time, resources, and energy we invest in recycling them a tremendous waste. Regrettably, this is currently the case for many materials that end up in our blue bins.
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The Recycling Reset, Step 2: Solving the Separation Anxiety Issue for Waste Streams The Recycling Reset, Step 2: Solving the Separation Anxiety Issue for Waste Streams

The Recycling Reset, Step 2: Solving the Separation Anxiety Issue for Waste Streams

When remanufacturers create new products from recycled materials, they require those materials to be as "clean" as possible—meaning they need a uniform feedstock of just the items they're interested in. Viable end markets for recyclables cannot exist without highly efficient sorting mechanisms that supply recyclers with this clean feedstock. This necessitates improved sorting and separating of materials for recycling and composting.
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Reality Check: Plastic isn't the Enemy...Problematic Plastics Are

Over the past 80 years, one undeniable fact is plastics have been a key driver of human advancement and wellbeing. That phone. Those clothes. That furniture. Your car. Your computer. Those medicines. That food. It's impossible to escape plastics today. But in our unquenchable thirst for convenience we've proliferated the overuse of problematic single-use plastics that - regardless of the label - are not recyclable or compostable, and these problematic plastics are having a devastating impact on our environment and all creatures in it. The great challenge of this century will be decoupling the advancement of human flourishing from its ecological impacts.

The Recycling Reset, Step 3: Why Truth in Labeling is Essential for Restoring Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Trust The Recycling Reset, Step 3: Why Truth in Labeling is Essential for Restoring Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Trust

The Recycling Reset, Step 3: Why Truth in Labeling is Essential for Restoring Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Trust

Today’s misleading recycling labels feed consumer confusion and erode trust. California’s SB-343, the “Truth in Labeling for Recyclable Materials” law, is a promising model. By early 2025, CalRecycle will issue its final report on what materials can legitimately carry the recycling symbol. The logic is simple: if a material isn’t being recycled at scale and isn’t economically or technically feasible to recycle, it will no longer bear the logo.
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The Recycling Reset, Step 4 - The Education Overhaul The Recycling Reset, Step 4 - The Education Overhaul

The Recycling Reset, Step 4 - The Education Overhaul

Once our recyclable (and compostable) logos can be believed, which is no small feat, the next step will be bringing consumers up to speed. We're talking about a fresh, fun, and relentless public education campaign (like the famous anti-litter PSAs of the 1970s) that will educate and inform people of this new framework, and how easy it will be for consumers to participate and support it.
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The Recycling Reset, Step 5: Design with the End in Mind The Recycling Reset, Step 5: Design with the End in Mind

The Recycling Reset, Step 5: Design with the End in Mind

Every product has a finite lifespan, and its materials inevitably end up somewhere. By designing products and packaging that keep materials in circulation—through reuse, recycling, upcycling, or composting—we can optimize cost and resource efficiency while reducing waste.
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New Earth Approved offers sustainable packaging to replace single-use plastics in e-commerce. Available to brands of all sizes, it supports circular solutions and helps customers reduce plastic pollution.
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